Below is document describing a draft data exchange
standard for interoperability among mammal collections in natural history
museums. This particular document is a revision (by John Wieczorek and
Barbara Stein on 4 Sep 2002) of the current draft of the
Darwin Core, version 2 (DwC2),
presented here for discussion by the participants in the MaNIS project.
It is recommended that readers become familiar with the concepts and history of
metadata standards for natural history collections,
and with the original
Darwin Core
in particular, which came out of the development of
The Species Analyst (TSA). The
Taxonomic Database Working Group (TDWG) is also a good source of information on standards, information models, and data dictionaries for biological collections.

Concept

Documentation

Searchable

Returnable

Required

DateLastModified

ISO 8601 date and time in UTC(GMT) when the record was last modified.
Example: "November 5, 1994, 8:15:30 am, US Eastern Standard Time" would be
"1994-11-05T13:15:30Z" (see http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime).

A code that identifies the institution to which the cataloged item
belongs. No global registry exists for institutional codes; use the code
that is "standard" in your discipline. This attribute must contain no
spaces.

CollectionCode

A unique alphanumeric value that identifies the collection within the
institution in which the item is cataloged. This attribute must contain no
spaces.

CatalogNumberText

An alphanumeric value which identifies an individual cataloged item
within the collection. It is recommended that this value provides a key by
which the individual cataloged item can be identified.

CatalogNumberNumeric

The CatalogNumber as a numeric value, if applicable. Allows searching
on numeric ranges of CatalogNumbers.

Collector

The name(s) of the collector(s) of the original data for the cataloged
item.

CollectorNumber

An identifying string applied to the cataloged item at the time of
collection. Serves as a link between field notes and the cataloged
items.

FieldNumber

An identifying string applied to a set of material that resulted from
a single collecting event.

YearCollected

The four digit year in the Common Era calendar in which the cataloged
item was collected.

MonthCollected

The two digit month of year in the Common Era calendar during which
the cataloged item was collected from the field.

DayCollected

The two digit day of the month in the Common Era calendar during which
the cataloged item was collected from the field.

VerbatimCollectingDate

The verbatim original representation of the date information for the
collecting event.

JulianDay

The ordinal day of the year (i.e., the number of days since December
31 of the previous year; January 1 is Julian Day 1) on which the cataloged
item was collected. May be derived from the YearCollected, MonthCollected,
and DayCollected by the provider.

TimeOfDay

The time of day the cataloged item was collected, expressed as decimal
hours from midnight, local time (e.g., 12.0 = noon, 13.5 = 1:30pm).

ContinentOcean

The full, unabbreviated name of the continent or ocean from which the
cataloged item was collected.

IslandGroup

The full, unabbreviated name of the island group from which the
cataloged item was collected.

Island

The full, unabbreviated name of the island from which the cataloged
item was collected.

Country

The full, unabbreviated name of the country or major political unit
from which the cataloged item was collected.

StateProvince

The full, unabbreviated name of the state, province, or region (i.e.,
the next smaller political region than Country) from which the cataloged
item was collected.

County

The full, unabbreviated name of the county, shire, or municipality
(i.e., the next smaller political region than StateProvince) from which
the cataloged item was collected.

Locality

The description of the locality from which the cataloged item was
collected, sans geographic information provided in other geographic
fields.

DecimalLatitude

The latitude of the location from which the cataloged item was
collected, expressed in decimal degrees.

DecimalLongitude

The longitude of the location from which the cataloged item was
collected, expressed in decimal degrees.

HorizontalDatum

The horizontal geodetic datum to which the DecimalLatitude and
DecimalLongitude refer.

OriginalCoordinateSystem

The name of the system in which the original geographic coordinates
were recorded (e.g., "decimal degrees", "degrees minutes seconds", "UTM",
etc.).

VerbatimLatitude

A text representation of the Latitude data in its original format in
the source database.

VerbatimLongitude

A text representation of the Longitude data in its original format in
the source database.

MaximumErrorDistanceInMeters

The upper limit of the distance (in meters) from the given latitude
and longitude describing a circle within which the whole of the described
locality must lie. Use NULL where the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be
estimated, or is not applicable.

BoundingBox

This access point provides a mechanism for performing searches using a
bounding box. A Bounding Box element is not typically present in the
database, but rather is derived from the DecimalLatitude and
DecimalLongitude columns by the data provider.

MinimumElevationInMeters

The minimum distance in meters above (positive) or below sea level of
the collecting locality.

MaximumElevationInMeters

The maximum distance in meters above (positive) or below sea level of
the collecting locality.

VerbatimElevation

A text representation of the Elevation in its original format in the
source database.

MinimumDepthInMeters

The minimum distance in meters below the surface of the water at which
the collection was made; all material collected was at least this deep.
Positive below the surface, negative above (e.g., collecting above sea
level in tidal areas).

MaximumDepthInMeters

The maximum distance in meters below the surface of the water at which
the collection was made; all material collected was at most this deep.
Positive below the surface, negative above (e.g., collecting above sea
level in tidal areas).

VerbatimDepth

A text representation of the Depth in its original format in the
source database.

ScientificName

The full name of lowest level taxon to which the cataloged item can be
identified (e.g., genus name, specific epithet, subspecific epithet,
etc.)

Kingdom

The phylogenetic kingdom to which the cataloged item belongs.

Phylum

The phylogenetic phylum (or division) to which the cataloged item
belongs.

Class

The phylogenetic class to which the cataloged item belongs.

Order

The phylogenetic order to which the cataloged item belongs.

Family

The phylogenetic family to which the cataloged item belongs.

Genus

The phylogenetic genus to which the cataloged item belongs.

Species

The phylogenetic specific epithet of the cataloged item.

Subspecies

The phylogenetic subspecific epithet of the cataloged item.

ScientificNameAuthor

The author of the ScientificName. Can be more than one author in a
concatenated string. Should be formatted according to the conventions of
the applicable taxonomic discipline.

IdentifiedBy

The name(s) of the person(s) who applied the currently accepted
ScientificName to the cataloged item.

YearIdentified

The four digit year in the Common Era calendar in which the cataloged
item was identified as having the ScientificName.

MonthIdentified

The two digit month in the Common Era calendar during which the
cataloged item was identified.

DayIdentified

The two digit day of the month in the Common Era calendar during which
the cataloged item was identified.

MostRecentTypeStatus

Indicates the most recent kind of nomenclatural type that the
cataloged item represents.

MostRecentBasionym

The most recently published scientific name for which this cataloged
item is a type. May be the same as the ScientificName.